Like, not literally to the garden (although, that sounded pretty convenient to me with the weather we had this summer) but to the places that you could go to if you just gave yourself the time for a 30 minute drive?

To celebrate my dad’s birthday, mum organised a surprise holiday to Norfolk and brought the Costa Del… weather with them. I got to spend a few days in a cottage near the coast with them and together we enjoyed exploring my adopted home county.

You know how they say New Yorkers have never been up the Empire State Building? I spent so much time wishing that I could explore the world…

..it’s really easy to forget the wonderful things about where you spend the bulk of your time and wonder why on earth other people come on vay-cay to your home.

One of my favourite things on a summer Monday is telling colleagues in London where I got to go over the weekend.

I loved driving around North Norfolk and showing my parents my favourite villages and beaches.

We walked many, many miles with the two dogs. Probably would have broken weaker spirits with all the excercise, except for the fact they are dogs and always up for more.

We got to eat fish and chips, ice cream, Cromer Crab. We got to drink local ales.

And I photographed food. Which would have probably frustrated my co-eaters if they didn’t seem to be quite as obsessed with the tastes and variety on offer in Sorrento. I am very happy to report that I was amongst friends. Most importantly, friends who share food. Delightful!

Whilst there, I myself ordered and enjoyed: tuna steak, fungi risotto, gnocchi alla sorrentina, crazy good puttanesca taglioni, the freshest tomatoes you could imagine (I mean, you could actually taste the sunshine in them), cherries that were like manna from heaven and several Panini filled with parma ham, mozerella, steak, buffalo tomatoes, roasted vegetables, pesto, more…

I sampled from my friends: fillet steak, applejack in a bean sauce, the world’s yummiest pizza (so yummy we forgot to photograph it), more different shapes of pasta than you get at a Whole Foods store and little snatches of ham when their backs were turned.

Between three of us we ate a £50 antipasti salad. That waiter saw us coming. It was lush. The beans were longer than the long beans in Thailand. I’ll write more about them another day…

We all ate ice creams in the shape of little monkeys. Seriously. Best gelatos out there. Mine was pistachio. He had teeth.

One person had his first ever cappuccino in Sorrento. He also had his second, third, fourth, fifth and quite probably tenth before we hit the airplane. He was buzzing and I was glad he wasn’t driving on the way home. I myself had a few espressos. Those who know me would think that would be a crazy idea. It was. But the best.

We even got free food. Bruschetta, fresh green olives, champagne and a tuna aperitivo with a little kiwi sauce. Not to mention the usual nuts, pretzels, crackers and copious amounts of bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Like this:

….on a summer holiday! Yay. I mean, it’s been just over 3 months since the last trip. I am really lookin forward to the break. We are going to Sorrento, Italy for a friend’s wedding. Which will be brilliant but I have to admit to being more excited about actually going to Italy: a lovely but rainy trip to Venice in November many years ago can’t be fully representative of all that Italy has to offer. I mean, I’ve seen the pictures people have posted on Facebook…

I’m looking forward to:
– pizza
– romantic stairways leading to the heavens
– fresh seafood
– the seaside
– seeing Caecilius‘ home in Pompeii (there’s one for the Sunny Hill girls!!)
– finding an Italian classy handbag
– reading at least one of the three books I have in my suitcase
– antipasti like it’s going out of fashion
– being back in a land where the word ‘zucchini’ is understood
– looking at pretty old churches
(And the boys say that they are looking forward to bridesmaids. Because after all, we are going to a wedding! Yay!)